Lavrov: 3rd World War Means Nuclear Confrontation, The US Is Responsible

Translated by Al-Ahed News

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that “Moscow is convinced that it is right in its confrontation with the West.”

In an interview with the Russian state television on Thursday, Lavrov accused the NATO of seeking to maintain its supremacy and said that while Russia had a lot of good will, it could not let anyone undermine its interests.

“The Europeans and the NATO are trying to do anything to harm Russia,” he said, noting that “NATO is trying to find a reason for its existence.”

He further accused the NATO of “turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian state”.

Expressing his country’s readiness to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and all of Europe, Lavrov said that Moscow has the political will. “Russia's dialogue with the West needs to be based on mutual respect,” he added.

In parallel, the head of Russia’s diplomacy unveiled that “Ukraine promised to lay out its position during this round of negotiations. The Ukrainians have presented their ideas and we are studying them. Meanwhile, we’ll continue our military operation.”

“Again, the Ukrainian team found some pretext to postpone these negotiations. Surely, they are receiving instructions from Washington, there is no doubt about it. This country is absolutely not independent,” Lavrov said.

The Russian foreign minister further expressed confidence that plans for waging war against Russia are being prepared.

In this context, he repeated his warning that a Third World War will be a nuclear confrontation.

“But the talk about nuclear war is now underway. I ask you to look very carefully at the statements that were made and at the characters who made these statements. First, Mr Stoltenberg [...] After that, Mr Zelensky began to declare that he would renounce the status of a non-nuclear state. Note the fact that a nuclear war is being constantly waged in the heads of Western politicians, and not in the heads of Russians,” Lavrov reiterated.

In addition, he said he believes the hysteria around Ukraine in the West will eventually pass and that a dialogue between Moscow and NATO will be restarted. “We shouldn’t look at the Ukrainian issue without looking at what happened during the past 8 years,” Lavrov emphasized.

As he confirmed that “There are no Russian troops in Kharkov”, Lavrov underscored that “Moscow couldn’t tolerate military threat from Ukraine which takes orders from Washington.”

“The Americans refuse inspection mechanisms and they continue to deploy chemical and biological laboratories around Russia,” he said, noting that “Ukraine’s future will be decided by its people from different nationalities.”

Accusing the US of trying to present itself as the ultimate good through ruthless diplomatic methods, Lavrov reminded of the US interference in Iraq.

“The victims in Iraq and Libya fell because of the West. The US claimed that Iraq resembled a threat to it, but it really wasn’t,” he mentioned, announcing that “Minsk Agreement has ended and the Westerners did not pressure Ukraine to implement it. However, they wanted Moscow to implement it only.”